A variety of maternity or prenatal cots and mattresses have been described which are formed with depressions, recesses, cavities or openings to accommodate the abdominal protrusion of a pregnant woman so that she can lie more comfortably on her stomach. A disadvantage of some of these cots and mattresses is that the hole or opening results in unsupported exposure of the stomach area. Furthermore the mattresses formed with cavities or depressions are not readily portable for outdoor sunbathing use. Such prior art maternity cots and mattresses are described for example in the Bien U.S. Pat. No. 3,464,069, the Pellegrini U.S. Pat. No. 2,089,854, the Skinner U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,862, the Lickert U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,306, the Pettit et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,054,960 and the Powell U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,872.
The Castelot et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,384 describes a "Pregnancy-Supporting Lounge Chair" in the form of a folding tubular lounge frame with webbing wound tightly across most of the frame including the end sections which form the headrest and footrest and a portion of the middle section. Another portion of the mid section is covered with an adjustable stretch band spaced from the webbing to expand in response to the prone stomach of a pregnant woman. A similar disadvantage of the Castelot et al. construction however is that the spaced apart stretch band still leaves portions of the protruding abdomen uncomfortably exposed and without full support between the webbing portions and stretch band or between the tubular elements of the frame.